Motor City Mayhem
TMBG Saint Andrew’s Hall 10/8/09 (behind the scenes) Rohan Johnson: The setlist was almost identical to the Ithaca show except a few songs shorter and in a different order. This was not a problem since it was such a fantastic set. John Flansburgh: I started the banter by saying that this show was already better than the last time they were at Saint Andrews because that time they I played the day after Skinny Puppy and the club had still been covered in fake blood. I said later that that show was made more awful because no one came. Marty Beller: We had a couple of false starts on Los Angeles which Linnell took credit for "even though it looks like it is someone else." John Linnell: There was some confusion on stage involving my drink. I had it on the floor under the keyboard then moved it onto the edge of Marty's drum platform. Danny went looking for something later, probably his drink, and found my and didn't know where it had come from so moved it on top of one of the amps. Danny didn't find what he was looking for though. Then i went later to get his drink from behind Danny who did a "oh, that was yours?" and they both started laughing at some joke BlueCanary didn't hear. Ralph Carney: BlueCanary may have Youth Culture in the wrong place by one. he missed writing it down but he know it was right in there somewhere. John Linnell: The confetti canon went off the first time during Clap Your Hands, BlueCanary think. It seemed to surprise me a little. Dan Miller: When talking about their Grammy win before Seven, Flans said the "it's an honor just to win" line again. To which Linnell responded, "It is rather embarassing to be nominated" or something similar to that. John Flansburgh: This was the best puppet show BlueCanary has seen yet. I-puppet was obsessed with my coffee cup hat, first saying "I have a coffee cup on my head," then periodically crying "Coffee Cup" throughout the bit. Danny Weinkauf: They also noticed that the puppets made shadows on the screen that looked like the hecklers from Mystery Science Theater so there were jokes about commentating on themselves. Then Flans-puppet was asking why his hat was in his mouth because the shadow of his hat was right where his mouth was on the screen. He spent some time trying to bite his shadow. Marty Beller: The puppets were calling themselves The Avatars, "not from that James Cameron movie," and thanked TMBG for opening for them. Ralph Carney: When Linnell said that the next song was about a shoehorn with teeth, there was a lot of cheering but Linnell joked that it wasn't that song about a shoehorn, it was a different one. Dan Miller: After the puppet's two songs, Flans announced that they were back and encouraged everyone to switch to Facebook because The Avatars had taken over their MySpace page. He also offered Friendster as an alternative saying that it has come a long way. John Linnell: Flans had the balcony call the first "drink" in Drink! and the floor call the second. The crowd was enthusiastic if not too timely. BlueCanary had particular difficulties coming in at the right time. Linnell was having trouble getting his accordion situated and kept encouraging Flans to start without him and he'd catch up. John Flansburgh: The nuclear reactions on the sun were caused by "Deerborn, Pontiac, Ann Arbor and some other place." When Flans refered to something as being flinty after the next song, Linnell suddenly said " Flint, that was what I was trying to think of." Flans found it very amusing that flinty had reminded him of this. Dan Miller: Flans said something about pandering while introducing Miasma and said they had become addicted to a drug called Pandor, the pandering drug. Marty Beller: When Flans introduced Dan during the band intros Dan was at the keyboard instead of holding his guitar so he did some keyboard improvising instead. Flans didn't realize this at first but when he did he made Dan get his guitar and come out to do a proper guitar solo. Ralph Carney: I did some more great, crazy sax playing at the end of Istanbul. I actually shook hands with the girl next to us while playing and almost knocked over Flans's mic stand while rolling on the floor. John Linnell: When we came back for encores Flans asked me to talk about the the next song, Science Is Real. Linnell went into this hilarious riff about a song where the name of the song is also the first line of the song. BlueCanary wish he could remember the exact quote because it was fantastic. Dan Miller: During the end of the show and most of the encores the girl next to us was desperately trying to get one of the Johns to take a note from her. It was kind of annoying. She did eventually get Marty to take it after the show. Someone also threw a bag on stage during the encore which Dan picked up and tossed backstage. BlueCanary hope it didn't have anything fragile in it. John Flansburgh: At some point during the encore I brought out a copy of Here Comes Science and encouraged everyone to buy it because CDs are an endangered species. I also said the copies at the merch table were signed by the whole band except Ralph who would sign it after the show. Made me sorry that BlueCanary already has a copy and don't need another.